Theology of Credible Leadership - Lesson 16

Dr. John Johnson
Theology of Credible Leadership
Communicate, Manage, Implement
Lesson Transcription

When we think about skills, we've looked at three so far. So I'm going to move to another skill that I, that I see both in reading leadership books, but I also see that's affirmed and underscored in theology, and that's the skill, we'll call this one, the skill to shape. So leaders who are effective, skillful, competent leaders know how to shape lives, help people find their strengths, develop their strengths, be intent upon saying, I want to, I want you with what you're really good at, to be really good at it, even better than you are.   

And know how God has made them and shape them. And then be again, that leader that helps in that process to do that.   

So in other words, the skill of making leaders, it's God's mandate. Second Timothy, two verse two. And Scripture gives numerous illustrations of skillful leaders who understood the importance of mentoring, mentorees, if you will, Moses with Joshua or, Elijah with Elisha, or Elisha with his, his company of prophets, or Barnabas who mentored Paul or Paul who invested time in Timothy, that that is, these are all leaders who understand the importance of preparing, the leaders that follow after them.   

These are the skillful leaders, the incompetent leaders or those who, who it's all about them who are not preparing and shaping the leaders for tomorrow. They're just living out what they're going to do, circling the wagons and hanging onto their power and not thinking about developing the next generation of leaders.   

And when that happens, we lead, it leads to like the period of judges when everyone did what was right in their own eyes. I take it because Joshua, while he learned leadership from Moses, somehow didn't get the memo that he needs to be doing that with future leaders. There is, There's a book that, well, let's just focus on this word shape for a moment.   

There's this book by Paul Hersey, perhaps you've heard of it. It's called Situational Leadership. His basic thesis is this here, is that an effective, competent leader gets his style of leadership, in compliment with the readiness of the follower.   

That's a skill. It gets back to shaping. So as he puts it, there are, there is a, a readiness level. Let's call this one that requires a style of leadership that has to, in a complimentary way, be a one. So, when you think about readiness level one, think of it as a, a follower, well, maybe really not yet a follower, someone who is unable and someone who is also unwilling.   

So this would be readiness level at its lowest place. Think of it as like maybe going back to the Vietnam War when someone was drafted, so they were drafted, and there they are, they're unable. They don't know how to fire a rifle.  

They don't know how to, to in any way get, engage the enemy. But there's also unwilling. And so what does that require? Requires a leader at S one level who therefore, is not so much into relationship, but into task. That's what a leader has to be at that point. It's, it's not so much about building rapport.   

It's about saying, this is what you need to do. It reminds me of my, my son who went to Coast Guard Bootcamp. And when he was there on the bus and the bus arrived, the drill instructor got on board and said, you have 30 seconds to get off this bus, and you've already wasted 20 seconds of my time. So there was no, Hey, how are you? Where are you from? Because they were at readiness level one.   

So therefore, the style of leadership had to a adjust to that. Now, what Hershey goes on to say is, is that over time, that shifts to, let's say, readiness level two. And this might be someone who now is willing but unable. This is a, a follower who says, let's say, an administrative assistant you've hired, that's all for doing the task, but, but needs to be trained.   

And so that requires, again, a different style of leadership. A leader who is not barking out orders, who is beginning to build a relationship, but is still rather directive. The third is R three. That requires an S3 liter.   

So at an R three, a person is able, but maybe a bit unwell, maybe hasn't developed the confidence. This might be someone who's learning how to fly a plane, and now is, is a challenge to, to fly on his own and is able to do it, but still uncertain. And so it requires its own style of leadership That relationally comes along still, but still is highly directional, which then leads finally to R four, which is where any leader hopes followers get to.   

They're able and they're willing. And that requires an S four kind of leader who delegates, who steps back, who is there when needed. But they've really handed off. The lesson Hershey makes here is that, a competent leader who shaping people, understands that as they move from R one to R two, to R three to R four, they have to shift with this.   

Imagine how ineffective a leader would be with an R four, but exercising an s one style of leadership with no sense for relationship, just barking orders when a person knows how to do it and actually really wants to do it, is it can be sort of like a parent who is treating an 18-year-old, like a 4-year-old.   

And what that does, of course, it just creates huge resentment. So all this to say that effective leaders are leaders with the skill of shaping.   

They know, they know they can read where people are at. They know if they are here how to bring them here. Part of that skillset, if you will, of a leader is also to understand his, his bent, if you will. Some are just bent to be S one leaders. Some might be more bent to be S four leaders. Let me illustrate.   

It would be like a leader who comes in that just wants to be one of the guys, be good friends with people who are back to R one and R two. And so followers never really move into greater skill sets or abilities because they really need someone, to manage and direct their their lives. So the skill I'm getting to is to read and to adjust your style.   

If a follower's here, you've got to make sure your style is here, no matter your bent, if you will, because some of us are, are bent in particular directions. I discovered, for example, I tend to be an S3. And so what that means is that I tend to still, while I'm developing confidence, con confidence in let's say my pastoral team, I still kind of want to be there to be their cheerleader.   

I want to be their support and encouragement. But sometimes what they really need me to do is to step further back, delegate, and then just let go and, and let them. So that's all the skill of shaping. There is, yet another skill that we see that I believe when we look at theology, certainly it's the skill of a leader to communicate.   

Now, again, the point is, it's not that, it's not that we just learned this from theology. We learn this from leadership texts themselves. But theology, again, sometimes may, may underscore, may take it in a bit of a different direction.   

But when I look at the scriptural stories and the scriptural mandates, I do find this, that God is saying to leaders, we need to find our voice. We need to communicate and communicate with a certain precision and conciseness. This is certainly when I read many of the proverbs in Scripture that underscore the importance of, of conciseness, not wordiness, words that are candid, and, and yet restrained it.   

It's a voice that has to be clear, has to be measured, has to a, avoid being verbose. One must effectively cultivate, the skill. But it's a skill that starts with listening. So if we're going to be great communicators, we have to be great listeners.   

It it, it starts there. It's sort of like back to followership again. So it starts with listening, learning how to listen for the voice of God. A leader's authority to speak is rooted in their ability at times to remain silent. So great communication starts with great listening, knowing when to speak, knowing when not to speak, waiting for expect with expectation for God to speak.  

Here's another skill of course, and it's the same we saw on the other side. And that is the skill to manage. When God calls a leader, summons a leader. Part of that leadership is going to go back to, to managing the best leaders. Were attentive to details. I think one of the great classic illustrations and Scripture of this is Nehemiah, who was attentive to detail, who administrated, who didn't see that as an addendum, as someone else's work.   

This underscores again, the word administer. In fact, I think of the word means literally towards ministry.   

It was Thomas Oden, the theologian who underscores this in his book on Pastoral of Theology. That administration is actually simply a work of moving things along in, in ministry. So the skill to manage, involves the responsibility in an organization to, to oversee, to notice the particulars.   

And what we find here is, is a God who does that. So God who creates, is actually also largely attentive to the details. Knowing the number of hairs on our head, knowing the flight of birds, and all of these details that tell us that God looks at the macro as well as the micro level he manages at every le level. To say that an effective, skillful leader is also mindful of the details.   

That while he sets again the vision, he's also mindful of where people are at. He's mindful of the details in the church that can get him into trouble if he's not paying attention. So what are some of the things a leader manages? Again, when I look and think about it theologically, we're back to managing first of all time. And when we think about time, we realize that, that it's important to understand the times we live in Effective management involves numbering our days.   

As Psalms 90 verse one puts it, it's buying up the moments, says Ephesians five puts it, a leader who's managing well and carefully, God seems to be sane in verses like this is, be aware of your time.   

Be aware of the fact that time is brief, Psalm 39, that there's no time to lose. I suppose I certainly am. I’m especially sensitive to this as I get older, all of us who get older begin to be aware that time is a precious resource and we don't have any of it to waste. I think elect effective leaders, competent leaders, understand that they also manage the resource of people.   

because we are called to manage our resources. And part of managing people theologically is managing, if you will, their brokenness that is and equipping them in their strengths. A classic passage here is, is Ephesians four, 11 through 12, that again underscores that here's the role of a leader.   

God gives the church these gifted leaders, prophets, priest, sages, or excuse me, prophet prophets, evangelist pastors, teachers, to equip the saints to do ministry so that people can carry out their tasks. So that means a leader develops the skill of reading people, of discerning, of maximizing their strengths.   

When I was, first in ministry in a church, my very first church ministry, I was a youth pastor. I always remember my first time I sat down for a performance review and there was the senior pastor, and he said to me, so, so John, what is it you do really well? Well, I told him, I, I believe, I, especially since looking at the response of, of the kids I work with that I'm pretty good at teaching, they seem to be captivated by things I'm able to pull out of Scripture, and it's something I'm passionate to do.   

So he said, well, okay, so tell me what you're not so good at. I said, well, when it comes to large events and activities, it's certainly not my strong suit to manage all the details that that comes with that.   

And I remember this is what he said. He said, well, okay, we'll work on that. So that's an incompetent leader, who's not managing the resources, managing my strengths. I like to think back that if he had been competent in his management of resources and managing his staff and his people, he would've said, well, if that's your strength, then let's figure out how we can make that even greater.   

And yes, it's important to be attentive to the things you're not so strong at, but let's find really competent people that, that for them that is their strong suit and let's see how we can bring them along to help compliment your strengths. You see what I'm saying?   

There's, there's, there's a lot of mismanagement that goes on in ministry that in a sense is framed and, and aimed almost, if you will, to lead to mediocrity. What if I, for example, had given a lot of my energies over the next two years to develop management skills in terms of details for events and left my strong suit, my strength over here seems like over time, this would come down, this might come up a bit, and my ministry would be largely defined by mediocrity.   

Who's a skillful leader? A skillful leader is someone who knows this, how to manage time, knows how to manage those. God has given, him, to manage, knows how to manage the resources, knows how to manage, just how much we have leaders, especially in the ministry world.   

I don't need to tell you this. Leaders in the ministry world are hemmed in by restraints constraints. We often operate in scarcity. That's a lot of ministry. It’s rare to find a ministry that is just has more wealth than it knows what to do with. It's actually just the opposite. We, in, in all of my churches, I often sat down with business managers, treasurers, finance committees, to raise the question, okay, how are we going to make our budget this year?   

This is, this is reality for most of us in ministry. And so therefore it requires certain level of competency to ask the question, how can we be really good at managing our resources? How we can we make sure we are putting our investments in the things that will bring about the greatest results?   

That that's a competent leader, realizing of course that everything is owned by God, and this whole venture is a venture of faith and trust. And then let's talk about this, the ability, The skill to implement. I think this is a really important skill.   

God is always on the move and always moving towards core outcomes. Those who who lead organizations, need to have the skill of bringing idealisms and visions to, to reality. That is to get to implementation that knows how to move plans from talk to actuality.   

And it's a skill. And it involves, it involves several things. It involves the skill of deciding of, because nothing will bog us down more than, than indecision or poor decisions. If we're going to, if we're going to implement, we have to know how to decide and know when to wait and know when to act.   

And the best decisions, of course, always begin with prayer that come out of, that come out of discernment. There's also in this, the, as we've talked about, there has to be in implementation, the skill to adjust to, to, to adapt.  

because things can go wrong and doors can close. And God often changes things up. And then this, requires execution. At, at some point leaders have to, in implementation, know how to execute. Our work is not finished until we have implemented and accomplished without implementation.   

One wrote it, leadership is a waste of time. And I think that's true. Leaders are often, really good at dreaming dreams of talking about what we need to do. But let's face it, at the end of the day, when you step back and look at what you are doing, you really have to ask the question, have we implemented this? Have we really done this? Execution is a systematic process of discussing how's and what's and questioning and following through and ensuring accountability.   

And there, along with this then comes the skill of measuring. This is all part of implementation. So measuring the right things, leaders must ask themselves if the con outcomes aim for and achieved are are getting there. That is, let me put it another way.   

A leader has to know how to measure success. A leader has to know the right yardsticks, the right measuring tools to tell us are we getting to where we need to get to? It requires, a broader sense than just numbers. Competent leader develops the skill to measure as God measures. And God doesn't always measure things with numbers. Now, we can go too far the other extreme and say, well, it's not about numbers.   

Well, that's not true. Numbers tell us things that we need to pay attention to. If I'm leading a church and the numbers continue to decline and decline and decline, those are numbers I have to pay attention to. Just as if they keep moving up, what is it we're doing right? Is it a sign we're doing something right? Some of the questions that a skillful leader, I believe must ask themselves and others is, is this ha have I been faithful, with an eye towards, with an eye towards being fruitful, as God defines it?   

There, there's a false dichotomy here that I want to underscore. Sometimes I hear people say, well, look, all that's matters is that I'm faithful. And I think to myself, well, no, it's more than that. Have I been fruitful?   

God seems to measure both. So when it comes to implementation and outcomes, a leader who's skilled, seeks to somehow measure both of those things, have we been faithful in this journey? Have we been faithful to our mission, faithful to our task, but also have we been fruitful? I mean, have we seen actual growth? So part of measuring also is, is stepping back theologically given our definitions and asking the question in the main, was my leadership an act of servanthood?   

Was it done with a heart of humility? Was I looking back over the years? Can it be said of me? I was devoted to truth. Did I fulfill the purpose for which I have been called?   

I always think of that passage in Paul in Philippians three. Worry says, not that I've, not that I've got there. Here's Paul. He as a leader, he's thinking outcomes and implementation of everything he's doing. And he, he, he says, not that I have have got there yet, but I I press on. You remember to lay hold of why God laid hold of him. So part of when we measure, and it's a skill again, of measuring the right things here, here's a good question a leader should ask.   

Have I have I grabbed hold of why I was grabbed hold of, did a leader feel the purpose for which he was called? Did a leader enable the lives of those that they lead to flourish? That's an important question. So at the end of it all, when I look back, the people I have led, have they moved to another level?   

Have they stayed just where they were? Or did I in my leadership help unleash people? I remember the dean of our seminary, a new dean that came and it was an, it was an opening interview. I sat down with him. I remember his first question. It's always stayed with me. He said, how can I make your life soar? I think that's a great question.   

Now, there are empty words. If he doesn't follow through, I mean, if a leader's going to say that, if he's going to ask that of the people, he or she leads, then you also need him or her to say words like this. So along the way, let's talk about your soaring and let's talk about what I'm doing to help you get there.   

But, but he did get it. That, and I believe he was saying, because I, it was a question I believe he asked of all of the faculty, and that is, I want to have a staff that I lead where people flourish. So what makes me sore? What would make me sore? I would probably, thinking back to that interview, say, well, here's how you can make me sore. Free me up to lead some of the courses I really want to lead.   

Free me up to bring this to the table when we gather together. Use my skill sets to the maximum and then I'll flourish. And if I'm doing that, and you're leading me towards that, wow, you are a competent leader. So have I been able to enable the lives of my followers to flourish? Were the accomplishments aimed at bringing glory to God?   

These are the kind of outcomes a leader has to write out. And this is what I'm simply encouraging you with when you think about your skillsets, you have to get to implementation. And with implementation comes outcomes. And with outcomes comes the right measurements. So how do you measure these things? They're, these are some of the skill sets. So, so here and the others before them are what make for, I believe, a competent, skillful leader.   

And my argument, my passion in all of this is that I see so much incompetence in leaders today. And I think in part is because they've never been trained, they've never, it's never been clearly outlined just what are the skills that you need to really work at that you need to develop? And don't just accept somehow that intuitively they're just going to, to come with time.   

That they're not, they all require core disciplines, but your followers desperately need you to be, to be skilled. So let's, let's bring this together again. I'm talking about leadership credibility. You remember, credibility requires leaders who have great character, solid character, people that have a certain gravitas, if you will, in their w people that have the kind of character that you say, that's who I want to follow.   

And leaders have to have the kind of good judgment, discernment, and to just wisen everything they do. They tap into the wisdom of God and they drink from it deeply every day. But thirdly, as we've been talking about, leaders who are credible are leaders who are just competent, who work at the essential skill sets.   

Every leader needs to have the skill to see the skill, to shape the skill, to think starts with the skill, to follow the skill, to manage and manage resources, and manage time and manage people that then moves to implementation.   

The, the skill to, to say, yeah, we started here, but we got here, we implemented it, we put it into motion, and, and it's happening. And those are the kind of leaders, I don't know about you, but those are the kind of leaders I hunger for. I'm looking for, I believe the church is looking for today. I believe this is what corporations are in the political realm, what governing bodies are looking for.   

And a lot of this, well, all of this I've talked about here is reinforced by what Scripture teaches us. So when you're deciding who you want to cultivate relationships with and what the nature of those relationships are, how do you determine how to make the time to do that?   

Well? Well, part of it is just a willingness to share leadership, right? Some of us maybe like to circle the wagons and, and just, yeah. I mean, in some respects it's a lot easier just to do it ourselves. And a a lot of leaders just in a sense say, it's just easier if I do it. And it is a lot of times. But, but part of it is a, a commitment to say, while, while it's easier to do it myself, I want to bring this person in with me.   

So when I would do pastoral care and shepherding, I wanted to take this person with me. I wanted him to observe what I do and what I don't do when I'm in a hospital, for example, I wanted to bring him with me when I was doing this hard exegetical work and preparing sermons, which I often spent, probably 23, 25 hours a week preparing a sermon for me.   

Anyway, it required all of that and more, anything less. And I believe I was shortchanging my people. So we would spend time again talking about those rigors. It really mattered to me that he was understanding the importance of ex of Jesus and the importance of exposition. And certainly, of course, bringing him in with me into the challenges of preaching and having him observe and, and talking about what he learned.   

Again, it'd be a lot easier just to do it all myself, right? But you, you invest in that. And we spent hours talking about leadership and, and, and I believe, again, I owe that to the church. I, I think great leadership failure is when we don't develop people.   

And, and so we leave and it leaves this vacuum. I'm working with the church right now and that's exactly what happened. And there's just this huge void. But somehow, by the grace of God, in my first church there was Kurt, I poured myself into Kurt to be not mandating the church. You, he has to be your next senior pastor, just saying, I prepared him if this is who you want to call.   

I did the same thing, with Dan in, in Europe, just this solid capable man that became my associate. And I just poured myself into him, be before I left the church and doing it with JI in my, my last church. So, that's as Tishi would put it. That's the leadership engine. And every organization needs that engine.   

And that goes back to the mandate of shaping people, pouring yourself in, in, into people.